Quercus turbinella

Last updated

Quercus turbinella
Quercus turbinella in central Arziona .jpg
Quercus turbinella.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Fagaceae
Genus: Quercus
Subgenus: Quercus subg. Quercus
Section: Quercus sect. Quercus
Species:
Q. turbinella
Binomial name
Quercus turbinella
Quercus turbinella range map 1.png
Natural range
Synonyms [2]
  • Quercus dumosa subsp. turbinella(Greene) A.E.Murray
  • Quercus dumosa var. turbinella(Greene) Jeps.
  • Quercus subturbinellaTrel.
Quercus turbinella Quercus turbinella in central Arziona .jpg
Quercus turbinella

Quercus turbinella is a North American species of oak known by the common names shruboak, turbinella oak, shrub live oak, and gray oak. [3] [4] [5] It is native to Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada in the western United States. [3] It also occurs in northern Mexico. [6]

Contents

Arizona shrub oak acorns. Quercus turbinella. Quercus turbinella acorns. Common name Arizona shrub oak..jpg
Arizona shrub oak acorns. Quercus turbinella.

Description

Quercus turbinella is a shrub growing 2–5 metres (6+1216+12 feet) in height but sometimes becoming treelike and exceeding 6 m (20 ft). The branches are gray or brown, the twigs often coated in short woolly fibers when young and becoming scaly with age. The thick, leathery evergreen leaves are up to 3 centimetres (1+14 inches) long by 2 cm (34 in) wide and are edged with large, spine-tipped teeth. They are gray-green to yellowish in color and waxy in texture on the upper surfaces, and yellowish and hairy or woolly and glandular on the lower surfaces. The males catkins are yellowish-green and the female flowers are in short spikes in the leaf axils, appearing at the same time as the new growth of leaves. The fruit is a yellowish brown acorn up to two centimeters long with a shallow warty cup about a centimeter wide. [6] This oak reproduces sexually via its acorns if there is enough moisture present, but more often it reproduces vegetatively by sprouting from its rhizome and root crown. [5] [3]

Distribution

Quercus turbinella has been found in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, southern California, and western Texas, as well as Baja California. [7] [4] In California, it occurs in the New York mountains and a few eastern California desert ranges. The populations on the desert mountains in the western Mojave desert and the inner coastal ranges are now considered Quercus john-tuckeri . [8] [9] It grows in woodland, chaparral, forest, and other habitat. It is most common in chaparral habitat in central Arizona, [5] through the transition zone of the Mogollon Rim White Mountains, but also southeast Arizona in the Madrean Sky Island mountain ranges of sky islands. [10]

Ecology

Quercus turbinella easily hybridizes with other oak species, including Quercus gambelii , Q. havardii , Q. arizonica , and Q. grisea . [5] Many species of animals use it for food, with wild and domesticated ungulates browsing the foliage and many birds and mammals eating the acorns. [5] Animals also use the shrub as cover, and mountain lions hide their kills in the thickets. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Quercus kelloggii</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus kelloggii, the California black oak or Kellogg oak, is an oak in the red oak section native to western North America. Although genetically separated from them for more than 20 million years, its leaves are remarkably similar in appearance to several other members of the red oak section including the red oak and the black oak found in eastern and central North America.

<i>Quercus wislizeni</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus wislizeni, known by the common name interior live oak, is an evergreen oak, highly variable and often shrubby, found in many areas of California in the United States continuing south into northern Baja California in Mexico. It generally occurs in foothills, being most abundant in the lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada, but also widespread in the Pacific Coast Ranges—where since 1980 it has been known as a separate species Quercus parvula—and the San Gabriel Mountains. It was named for its collector, Friedrich Adolph Wislizenus (1810–1889).

<i>Quercus douglasii</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus douglasii, known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a dominant species in the blue oak woodland ecosystem. It is occasionally known as mountain oak and iron oak.

<i>Quercus engelmannii</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus engelmannii, the Engelmann oak or Pasadena oak, is a species of oak in the white oak section, native to southern California and northwestern Baja California, Mexico.

<i>Quercus berberidifolia</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Fagaceae

Quercus berberidifolia, the California scrub oak, is a small evergreen or semi-evergreen shrubby oak in the white oak section of Quercus. It is a native of the scrubby hills of California, and is a common member of chaparral ecosystems.

<i>Quercus chrysolepis</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus chrysolepis, commonly termed canyon live oak, canyon oak, golden cup oak or maul oak, is a North American species of evergreen oak that is found in Mexico and in the western United States, notably in the California Coast Ranges. This tree is often found near creeks and drainage swales growing in moist cool microhabitats. Its leaves are a glossy dark green on the upper surface with prominent spines; a further identification arises from the leaves of canyon live oak being geometrically flat.

<i>Quercus durata</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus durata, commonly known as leather oak, is a species of oak endemic to California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The common name "leather oak" is derived from the leathery texture on the lop of its leaves. Taxonomically it is placed in the white oak group.

<i>Salix lasiolepis</i> Species of willow

Salix lasiolepis is a species of willow native to western North America.

<i>Quercus dumosa</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus dumosa is a species of plant in the family Fagaceae, belonging to the white oak section of the oak genus (Quercus). This tree goes by the common names coastal sage scrub oak and Nuttall's scrub oak.

<i>Quercus vacciniifolia</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus vacciniifolia, the huckleberry oak, is a member of the Protobalanus section of genus Quercus. It has evergreen foliage, short styles, very bitter acorns that mature in 18 months, and a woolly acorn shell interior.

<i>Encelia actoni</i> Species of flowering plant

Encelia actoni, also known by the common names Acton brittlebush and Acton encelia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.

Quercus × alvordiana, the Alvord oak, is a hybrid oak in the genus Quercus. It has been reported to be a hybrid between Quercus douglasii and Quercus turbinella, or between Q. douglasii and Quercus john-tuckeri, which was formerly considered to be a variety of Q. turbinella.

Eriophyllum jepsonii is a rare North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Jepson's woolly sunflower. It is endemic to California, where it has been found in the Central Coast Ranges and adjacent hills from Contra Costa County to Ventura County.

<i>Eriophyllum pringlei</i> Species of flowering plant

Eriophyllum pringlei is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Pringle's woolly sunflower. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in several types of desert, canyon, and hillside habitat, such as chaparral and sagebrush.

<i>Quercus cornelius-mulleri</i> Species of tree

Quercus cornelius-mulleri is a North American species of oak known by the common name Muller oak, or Muller's oak. It was described to science in 1981 when it was segregated from the Quercus dumosa complex and found to warrant species status of its own. It was named after ecologist Cornelius Herman Muller. It is native to southern California and Baja California, where it grows in chaparral, oak woodlands, and other habitat in foothills and mountains. It can most easily be observed in Joshua Tree National Park and in the woodlands along the western margins of the Colorado Desert in San Diego County, California.

<i>Quercus john-tuckeri</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus john-tuckeri is a North American species of oak known by the common name Tucker oak, or Tucker's oak. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the chaparral and oak woodlands of mountain slopes in the western Transverse Ranges, the southernmost Central Coast Ranges, and the margins of the Mojave Desert. The species is named after John M. Tucker, professor of botany (1947–1986) at the University of California at Davis, specialist in Quercus.

<i>Quercus palmeri</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus palmeri is a species of oak known by the common name Palmer oak, or Palmer's oak. It is native to California, Baja California, Southern Nevada, and in Arizona through the transition zone to the eastern Mogollon Rim, where it grows in canyons, mountain slopes, washes, and other dry habitats.

<i>Quercus pacifica</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus pacifica is a species of oak known by the common names island scrub oak, Channel Island scrub oak, and Pacific oak.

<i>Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus</i> Species of flowering plant

Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name rayless goldenhead. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it occurs in southern California, southern Nevada, southern Utah, and Arizona.

<i>Quercus ajoensis</i> Species of shrub

Quercus ajoensis is an uncommon North American shrub with the common name Ajo Mountain shrub oak. It has been found in Arizona mountain ranges of the Colorado desert, and Arizona uplands of the Sonoran desert. Q. ajoensis integrates with Q. turbinella and is difficult to determine specimen identification due to hybridization. It appears that this species is an elevation variant of Q. turbinella and is best treated as a subspecies or variety as it has been treated in the past. The status of Q. ajoensis as a species is probably unnecessary due to complete integration with Q. turbinella or it being a low elevation variant of Q. turbinella.

References

  1. Beckman, E. (2016). "Quercus turbinella". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T194242A2305742. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T194242A2305742.en . Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. "Quercus turbinella Greene". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
  3. 1 2 3 Nixon, Kevin C. (1997). "Quercus turbinella". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 3. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  4. 1 2 "Quercus turbinella". Calflora. Berkeley, California: The Calflora Database.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tirmenstein, D. (1999). "Quercus turbinella". Fire Effects Information System (FEIS). US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service (USFS), Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
  6. 1 2 Virginia Tech: Shrub live oak Archived May 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Quercus turbinella". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  8. Calflora
  9. SEINet, Southwestern Biodiversity, Arizona chapter photos, description, interactive distribution map
  10. Little Jr., Elbert L. (1976). "Map 147, Quercus turbinella". Atlas of United States Trees. Vol. 3 (Minor Western Hardwoods). US Government Printing Office. LCCN   79-653298. OCLC   4053799.